2,700-mile
walk from Milwaukee covers more than redemptionWar
veterans, director join in talkback at Oriental

By: TOM JOZWIK
- TimeOut Film Critic

October 6,
2016

Tom Voss and
Anthony Anderson in “Almost Sunrise.”

Credit:
Thoughtful Robot Productions

MILWAUKEE
- An ex-military man from Milwaukee, a subject of a
documentary film, dispensed advice from the Landmark Oriental
Theatre stage Sunday, followingthe second of the documentary’s two local screenings
during the Milwaukee Film Festival.

If you
ever decide to walk from Milwaukee to California, Anthony
Anderson told a virtually full Sunday afternoon house, you
should “get good shoes” and “get good socks.”

Anderson
was speaking from experience. As the saying goes, he walked
the walk, covering 2,700 miles during a five-month span three
years ago and visiting more than 100 cities in the process.
That herculean journey, undertaken with friend and fellow
veteran from Milwaukee Tom Voss, is at the heart of the
documentary, which is titled “Almost Sunrise” and had its
debut as a prizewinning entry at the well-known Telluride
Mountainfilm Festival in May. “Almost Sunrise” will be
telecast nationally in 2017, as part of the “POV” series
on PBS.

The
Milwaukee-to-California journey’s purpose: to clear the
ex-soldiers’ psyches in the aftermath of their service in
Iraq. They also raised funds for Dryhootch, a nonprofit
dedicated to helping returning vets. A “spiritual odyssey”
for Anderson and Voss, is the way the movie’s publicists put
it, adding that the subjects, while battling post-traumatic
stress disorder, “are simultaneously dealing with an unseen
battle scar called ‘Moral Injury’ - often manifested as an
extreme brand of guilt and shame that arises when one goes
against one’s own moral code” (by terrorizing apparent
innocents, for example, or ignoring wounded persons in need of
help). This “scar” is not controlled by medication and
could become “the signature war wound of our generation.”

Voss
joined Anderson and the film’s director, erstwhile Emmy
nominee Michael Collins, onstage at the Oriental.

For the
walkers, both of them working with veterans these days, the
2013 trip to the Golden State was a considerable part - but by
no means the conclusion - of a redemptive process.

“It’s
a constant process,” Anderson informed his Milwaukee
audience. “You have to remain vigilant. I constantly try to
remind myself of the good things that happened” on the way
from Milwaukee to California. Those positives included his
“seeing the good in people again,” Anderson said, adding
that, “for the most part, people have been incredibly
supportive.” A husband and father, Anderson cited writing,
communing with nature and involvement with Veterans Trek (an
offshoot of the ‘13 walk) as ways of being “vigilant.”
According to information online, Veterans Trek “provides
peer to peer treks for veterans seeking time, healing and
camaraderie.”

Voss is
now based in Washington, D.C.; from that home port he travels
the nation, offering therapeutic help to vets. Said Voss from
the stage regarding Anderson and himself, “Both of us really
believe in peer-to-peer” guidance. Onscreen, his girlfriend
recalled Voss’ “detachment,” drinking, and hollering out
in the night at a time when he was apparently without such
guidance.

A
98-minute production designated as the MFF’s “centerpiece
film” for 2016, “Almost Sunrise” begins by alternating
home movie footage from Voss’ childhood with wartime footage
of him in Iraq. Additionally, scenes of Milwaukee are followed
by city scenes from Iraq. There are clips from television
newscasts and the funeral of a Marine who took his own life. A
startling statistic is presented: 22 U.S. veterans die daily
by their own hand. That statistic was the seed for the
documentary, director Collins indicated at the Oriental.

“The
editing was really difficult,” Collins said in response to a
question from the audience. “It was tough. (Anderson and
Voss) had so many amazing experiences” - and the
cinematographer ended up with 400 to 500 hours of footage.

But then,
all’s well that ends well. “It was a very powerful
film,” a patron said in prefacing another question at the
Oriental. “So thank you.”